Page 44 of A Love So Wrong
Not hearing a response, she turned and saw Gideon standing in the doorway of the room wearing a sad smile. Guilt seized her as she realized how her words sounded. Turning back around, she walked up to him and slipped her arms around his narrow waist and under his arms. Leaning into him, she closed her eyes and squeezed him tight.
"I didn’t mean it that way," she explained softly. "I was just saying I felt self-conscious compared to all the pretty women I saw as we walked through the lobby."
The hand on her back slid up along her spine and over her shoulder until Gideon cupped the side of her neck, his thumb tracing the underside of her jaw gently. Tilting her head upward, he gave her a determined look.
"I promise it won't be like this forever," he vowed, and she could feel the depth of his solemn promise vibrate through their connected chests. "We'll save up the money, and we'll go back to Stardust Cove and then…then we can…we can be happy, right?"
Her stomach twisted at that. Holding him tighter, she gave him a large smile. "What are you talking about? I'm already happy. As long as we're together, that's all I need."
Gideon stared at her, studying her face. His other hand coming up to mirror the other until both of his large callused hands bracketed her face. Jade felt her lungs constrict, and her heart seize as she watched something spark in his eyes. Burning into hers, his eyes glittered with something so piercing and needful as they traveled and lingered on her lips. Just as her legs felt as if they were going to give out, Gideon stepped back and looked beyond her.
"Get changed," he said hoarsely.
Nodding, Jade rushed to the bathroom and shut the door.
~
"This place is huge," Jade remarked, stepping aside as a group of laughing men all wearing matching shirts walked by. The shirts readBill's last night of freedom. Jade smiled.
They were in their hotel's indoor mall, standing on a bridge that overlooked the indoor river that ran around the length of the mall. Overhead the giant curving ceiling was painted to look like the evening sky with the help of LED lights and clever spotlights that changed to make it look like a picture-perfect sunny day during the day and a nighttime sky with twinkling lights as the time shifted to the later hours. It was spectacular.
"Yeah, and I don't think we are even halfway through," Gideon said, looking at his map of the mall he had pulled up on his phone. "We are next to the Gucci store, so that means we pass twenty more luxury shops we will never be able to afford until we get to the smoothie stand that our coupon works with," he shot her a wry smile.
The coupons they were originally given were all swapped out with fresh ones due to a slight oversight on their part.
When they first came downstairs, they had both headed to the slot machines to use some of their free coupons. Finding a bank of empty slot machines in the least smoky section they could find they had sat down and began to play, enjoying the animated responses of the machine in between plays. They were even up by twenty dollars when the shadow fell over them. Gideon had turned to the source first. By his sudden stiffening reaction and abrupt move to stand, Jade finally looked up only to freeze at the two imposing men standing at their side. Both dressed in tailored black suits, they stood watching and waiting for their attention. The blonde man in the front smiled, keeping both hands in his pants pockets with a casualness that did not reflect in his smile. Jade wasn't sure, but there was something a little off about the man's smile. Although he was attractive, tall, and looked seemingly fit underneath his suit jacket, judging by the span of his shoulders, his smile seemed almost razor-sharp, as if it was a tool rather than an expression. The other man standing behind him and a little to the side was much worse though, he actually scared her a bit. He looked like a character out of a Mortal Kombat movie or something. He was huge. Wider than a pro-football player and just as tall as the blonde man, the man behind him looked like a professional bouncer—or a contract killer. The dark tattoos on his terracotta skin crept past his collar and up to his ears on both sides of his neck, and down to his hands he kept calmly clasped at his front. Who were these men?
Tense as if ready to fight, Gideon had asked them the same question.
"I apologize," the blonde said smoothly in an accent so deep Jade found herself squinting and replaying his words. Was he Russian? Or was that German?
"I am…the manager of this hotel," he said as if he had come up with the title just then, and it satisfied him. "My name is Dimitri, and this is my head of security, Dominic," he said, gesturing to the man Jade could not take her eyes off of.
For a second, Dominic's dark eyes moved past Gideon and fell to her, and she could have sworn she saw them soften just the slightest before returning back to their unreadable hardness and shifting away from her.
"Yes, and how can I help you?" Gideon asked coldly.
Shocked at his level of hostility, Jade had moved closer to him and wrapped one hand around his firm upper arm. She could feel his bicep harden under her grip.
Smiling even wider as if amused, the blonde carried on. "Now correct me if I'm wrong, but you two don't look twenty-one, am I correct?"
Jade had felt like she had been punched. When they first stepped off the elevator, they both knew they couldn’t use the coupons for the bar for the intended drinks but figured they could easily cash them in for soft drinks, they hadn't even considered the age to gamble.
"Not quite," Gideon answered stiffly. He was only twenty.
Sliding his blue gaze from Gideon to her, the blonde gave her a considering look. "And how old are you exactly?" he asked, looking directly at Jade.
"I'm eighteen," she answered quickly.
The man's eyes widened a fraction before smiling even wider. "Good Lord," he said with a laugh. "Well, this should be fun," he mused to himself with a bewildered shake of the head before turning to Dominic. As if expecting what he wanted, the big man reached into his black suit coat and pulled out familiar black and gold paper.
Taking the papers, Dimitri looked back to Gideon and held out his other hand expectedly. "Tell you what, why don't you give me the coupons you received at check-in, and I'll trade them out with some you both can actually use."
Jade was more than relieved the two men allowed them to walk away without any real trouble. Was underage gambling a crime you could go to jail for or get a huge fine? Either scenario would have been really bad, and she was more than happy the manager was nice enough to not only let them walk away but even gave them new coupons.
After taking a few dozen selfies at the various indoor fountains and beautiful artwork, they finally made it to the smoothie stand. Carrying one of the biggest smoothies she had ever seen, they slowly made their way through the stack of coupons. At first, Gideon was insulted as he scanned through each coupon.
"I think that bastard was trying to insult us," Gideon grumbled, tapping the stack of paper agitatedly against his palm. "These are practically for children."
